Tesco Slammed Over Meat Waste Energy Scheme

Mon, 10 Aug 2009
 
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Tesco has revealed it is sending waste meat to be converted into renewable energy for British homes, as part of a green drive to divert 100 per cent of its UK-produced waste from landfill sites .

The supermarket giant said the 5,000 tons of out-of-date meat that is produces annually is being sent to biomass plants to be turned into enough electricity to power more than 600 homes for a year.

However, the move has been criticised by animal rights group Viva who said many vegetarians would be "horrified" to find out that their homes are being partly-powered by wasted meat .

They argued that the supermarket would not need to recycle the waste meat if they did not over-order in the first place.

Justin Kerswell, campaigns manager for Viva, said: "To turn this wasted meat into power might seem like a good idea at first, but you have to ask yourself why is so much left over and why are so many animals dying to provide this excess? Surely killing fewer animals in the first place should be the aim."

He added: "Whatever savings are made by turning this meat into energy is more than voided by the huge amount of greenhouse gases generated by the farming and production of the meat in the first place."

Tesco has defended the scheme, pointing out that meat makes up less than 1 per cent of the company’s total waste that is being turned into energy .

A spokesman for the retailer said: "Tesco wants to play its part in helping the environment by ensuring that none of our waste goes to landfill, which produces damaging methane gas but instead is reused in a productive way."

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